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To finish these posts about VMworld 2018 Europe, I am going to summarize day 3 and day 4 together as day 4 is usually the less busy of all of them (people usually leave in the morning).

On day 3 (Wednesday), I rest like 5-6 hours (pretty normal to me) after spending some part of the night at the Veeam Party. I made it to be at the enclosure at 8:30 AM because at 9:00 it will start the second general session.

I grabbed some coffee and go to the correspondent Hall, the same as the day before.

2nd General Session

For me it was a weaker session than on the previous day but, I was great.

In the previous post, I forgot to mention the VMware ESXi on a Raspberry PI as a prototype, that Pat and Ray showed us, really cool.

vCommunity, vStreetfighter and more

I must say that I had like 4 sessions scheduled on Wednesday and I only went to a couple of those. The most of the time I was hanging with people from the vCommunity and playing also I played some Street Fighter V in the gaming area. We have a group for that, check out #vstreetfighter for some tweets on Twitter and join us!

First, let me show us a couple of fights that I had against Bilal Ahmed (I lost and I don’t how yet…). You can check here that Gregg Robertson offered a challenge against me at the gaming area.

So I was Ryu he was ken . I beat him 3 times in a row…..then we played alpha2 and I was akuma and he whooooppped my ass 🤣 I do admit there was some luck and button bashing on my part lol pic.twitter.com/XqDEBy5icI

I can’t be happier to be able to meet these persons and more that I didn’t mention or couldn’t take a photo. When you are there, the time passes by quick and because of this, I didn’t go to some sessions (I knew that I could watch them later at home).

I enjoyed having dinner with Chris a couple of times, hanging a lot in the Solutions Exchange area or with Jorge de la Cruz to everywhere.

vBreakfast

Thank you, Fred @Fred_vBrain for doing this kind of things! In this case, Abdullah Abdullah @do0dzZZ was the host for this year as Fred couldn’t assist.

I woke up at 6 AM… a bit painful but, some sacrifices needed to be done when you are not at the office! It started at 7:00 AM but, I arrived around 7:30 AM or so.

And I arrived… a lot of people were sitting there! I had the chance met some people I already know from Twitter and others that not. We had great conversations there meanwhile we tried to eat some toasts with iberian ham and also a bit of omelet.

The first General Session

I arrived at the hall and sit wherever I could and what a nice session…with some announcements and great stories to hear!

VMworld Europe 18 – 1st General Session

Besides the newer versions of VCF, Horizon, AppVolumes and more, the more interesting for me was the acquisition of Heptio and the announcement of VMware Cloud PKS (it will be expanded to Azure in the future!).

After that, I had plenty of time to meet more people and attending a couple of technical sessions.

The best time, the vCommunity

The best time of all of this is the #vCommunity and the networking that you can do. I met a lot of people there and I couldn’t be happier to have done it.

I met an amazing person and famous (amazing) blogger here in Spain, if you don’t who is, please do it! He’s Jorge de la Cruz (@jorgedlcruz) and nowadays works for Veeam. He’s just a blogger machine (I don’t know anyone who posts more than this man). In their blogs, he has information about anything! You can check it out here: https://www.jorgedelacruz.es/ and https://jorgedelacruz.uk/

The Solutions Exchange

A thing you can’t miss, the Solutions Exchange. A lot of partners in this Hall where you can chat with people that work in the company and have great discussions, gather some swag and maybe you can win something in the raffle (yes, a lot of companies offered free tickets and there were big prizes like a Nintendo Switch, Apple Watch, etc.) !

Veeam’s party

I was so lucky to be invited to this party and what a nice party! I only can say that there were good drinks, food and of course music! It was in a famous discotheque called Apollo.

Bad quality picture from the Veeam party

I know it’s not the best quality but, is just to show you how it looked:

And that’s all… I had to leave “early”, around 12 AM as I had to commute by train so, I didn’t have a chance to stay and enjoy this party.

P.S.: I forgot to mention that each day there is a free lunch in a specific area where you can grab food. The lunchtime I think that I was delivered between 12:00 – 2:00 PM

Let me talk to you about my experience on my first VMworld! This is a personal experience I want to share about Day 1 at VMworld 2018 Europe.

Introduction

I live in Barcelona so, I am fortunate that I don’t need to travel to go to the VMworld Europe. The only thing is to commute by train between home and Fira Barcelona (where VMworld is established).

It was Monday, November 5th, 2018. I woke up around 6 AM and took the train to arrive at 8 AM approximately.

This is how the entrance looked:

Inside VMworld

I picked up my badge (using a QR code from the VMworld app) and headed to the VMvillage (the main place on this event).

After taking some pictures… I went to take a lab at the HOL Lounge, why? Because I wanted to try new labs, there are more slots available and I wanted to feel an experience like that at VMworld. Also, you learn some coins for the VMware code ( http://vmwcc.com/).

The first day is the calm day, I mean, the Solutions Exchange (where partners have their booths) is not opened and there are less interesting sessions (at least for my self) than other days. People usually are on TAM/Partners sessions or maybe they come on Tuesday.

I explored every enclosure’s corner and checked where were all Halls (to not waste more time the next day). There was food everywhere, from sandwiches to pastries and of course coffee, you could pick it on any lounge or at the VMvillage for free.

In the middle of the VMvillage, there was a Gaming Area with a table tennis table, pinball machines, a giant table football and more things… my favourite part, the Arcade machines with a lot of games!

I was eager to meet some people I met on Twitter and of course, I did it!

The first person I met was Graham Barker @VirtualG_UK an awesome guy who which I spent some time in the beginning, now I am thinking we didn’t take a selfie…

Also, I met Angelo Luciani @AngeloLuciani, very kind guy! He takes selfies with a lot of people and always open to anyone, I chatted with him a bit and it was a pleasure.

See you…tomorrow!

At the end of the day, I had some workshops to attend and couldn’t meet more people (obviously some of them are busy in the first day) but this only was the beginning of an awesome journey that will start at the next day, when the action begins.

I returned home early as I had things to do and also on the next day vBreakfast will be awaiting me (at 7:00 AM).

So, the first day was a great experience, is more dedicated for the partners but maybe you can network with people that on the next days will have no time (as probably you).

Also, I’ll be at VMFest on Wednesday and maybe other parties but I can’t assure anything.

Expectations

I am going every day except for Thursday that I’ll leave before 1 PM.

My schedule is built with sessions, workshops, parties (just a couple) and obviously a couple of hours of free time, to network and do whatever I want (also relax, as it seems that can be exhausting). Remember that all sessions will be recorded so if you can’t attend it, you can watch it later.

About the parties, I won’t be able to stay too late because I need to come back home and we have more days to enjoy VMworld.

If you want to talk or something (like play some video games), you can find me on Twitter (I am really active). I’ll be open to everyone in the community!

Even I know I am not a famous guy, (and don’t pretend to be it), talking with new people can be satisfying and it’s always great to meet someone new. If you are shy you could try to engage someone on Twitter and let him/her know that you are there!

As it is my 1st time I can’t give any advice on this, you should check other blogs for that.

P.S. I wanted to meet especially (among other people) Ariel (@arielsanchezmora) but it couldn’t be as he can’t assist.